FAKE SPONSOR? Miaoli County Councilor Lo Kuei-hsing said that an exchange trip for school students was organized by an official ‘united front’ Chinese agency

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 18, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

A school exchange trip to China was cover for a Chinese indoctrination program, Miaoli County

Councilor Lo Kuei-hsing (羅貴星) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) said yesterday after more than 100 students and teachers returned to Taiwan following an extended stay in China’s Fujian Province due to inclement weather.

Parents of students from Tongsiao Junior High School in the county were working to arrange alternative travel home for their children, who were on an “education and sports exchange” in China, after their planned return via ferry was canceled due to inclement weather, Lo said, adding that the parents discovered that the group had been exposed to “Chinese propaganda” and “political indoctrination.”

The group of mostly baseball and softball players was staying in Pingtan County, but parents discovered that they were targets of the Chinese Communist Party’s Department of United Front Work and its provincial authorities, Lo said.

“They paid only NT$1,000 each for the trip to cover registration and administrative fees,” Huang said. “The rest of their expenses, including ferry tickets, insurance, local transportation, accommodation and meals, were covered by the Chinese side.”    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 16 October, 2019
By: Shirley Lin

President Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan-US relations are at their best in decades. Tsai was speaking on

Wednesday while receiving the chair of the American Institute in Taiwan, James Moriarty. The American Institute in Taiwan is the de facto US embassy in Taiwan.

Tsai said she hopes that there will be further growth in trade between the two countries.

Tsai said,“Last month, Taiwan sent a delegation of agriculture experts to the US. We have plans to purchase US$3.7 billion worth of agricultural products from the US in the next two years. We hope that we can sign a Taiwan-US bilateral trade agreement soon to promote trade.”    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: Oct 16, 2019

Latest Updates

We're less than 100 days away from Taiwan’s presidential election, which will be held on January 11, 2020.

Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election is about the survival of democracy for a population of 23 million. Beyond domestic policies, however, Taiwan’s upcoming elections will heavily influence the country’s relations with two superpowers: China and the United States.

The continuance of Taiwanese values and democratic freedoms might depend on whether Taiwan will see another four years under President Tsai Ing-wen of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) or elect the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Han Kuo-yu.

Third-party candidates are not included in our tracker, see methodology for details.    [FULL  STORY]

Eight human rights activists and politicians targeted

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/16
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Wednesday (October 16) condemned

the leaking of private information about eight Taiwanese activists by a Russian-based Hong Kong website.

The site had done the same with more than hundred democracy activists in Hong Kong, throwing their addresses and private phone numbers online, the Central News Agency reported.

A similar fate befell eight Taiwanese citizens, including leaders of small pro-Taiwan Independence groups, an aide to a member of the Taipei City Council, and the secretary-general of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights. Even their passport numbers were revealed online, according to CNA.

In some of the cases, the publication of the private information resulted in threats, reports said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/16
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, Oct. 16 (CNA) Taiwanese medical experts said Wednesday that e-cigarettes do little to help

smokers quit and instead encourage people to smoke tobacco cigarettes.

In fact, e-cigarette users are almost four times more likely than non-users to become smokers, said Lai Chih-kuan (賴志冠), attending physician in the Department of Family Medicine at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, citing data from the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"Among American teenagers, 30.7 percent of e-cigarette users started smoking within six months, while only 8.1 percent of non-e-cigarette users became smokers," Lai said at a press conference held by Taiwan's Science Media Center.

It is a phenomenon related to the Gateway theory, which is also known as the stepping-stone theory, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

‘SUCCESS STORY’: Taiwan is the first line of defense for democratic values and a valued partner, AIT Chairman James Moriarty said during a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 17, 2019
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday said that Washington’s “abiding interest” is cross-

strait peace and stability, and described China’s continuing hostile actions against Taiwan as an attempt to alter the “status quo” in the region.

“The US views Taiwan security as central to the security of the Indo-Pacific region, and continues to have an abiding interest in cross-strait peace and stability,” AIT Chairman James Moriarty said at a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at the Presidential Office in Taipei.

Moriarty, who is leading a delegation on a six-day visit to Taiwan, also said that the US is “deeply troubled” by the unrelenting political, economic and military pressure that Beijing is exerting on Taiwan, referring to it as an attempt to alter the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait.

“The US opposes unilateral attempts to alter the ‘status quo,’ because they undermine the regional framework that has enabled peace, stability and development for decades,” he said.
[FULL  STORY]

Incurring a mother's wrath.

Mothership
Date: October 15, 2019
By: Ashley Tan

You might have heard of Taiwanese actress-singer Annie Yi, who was previously married to famous singer Harlem Yu.

The celebrity pair divorced in 2009, and Yi has since wed 41-year-old Chinese actor Qin Hao in 2015.

The fresh-faced 50-year-old has occasionally featured her daughter, Milly Qin, on social media.

On Yi’s Weibo account, several posts have been dedicated to her three year old, with plenty of photos of Qin smiling, playing, and even enjoying a spa day.

Yi has also been promoting her own probiotics on Weibo, as part of her own personal e-commerce business.

According to 8 Days, Yi revealed that her daughter had been consuming the products as well, which was when netizens became slightly suspicious.    [FULL  STORY]

Biometric Update
Date: Oct 15, 2019 
By: Luana Pascu

After Chinese biometrics company Megvii was blacklisted by the U.S. government last week, Taiwan Economics Minister Sheng Jong-chin announced at a hearing of the Legislative Yuan’s Economic Committee that Taiwan is now also looking into reviewing the company, after it received a contract to implement a facial recognition security system at Taichung Power Plant, writes Focus Taiwan.

The Minister’s announcement came after national security concerns were raised at the meeting by a legislator of the New Power Party. Megvii is one of the 28 biometrics companies added to the U.S. government’s Entity List for alleged involvement in human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang region.

Megvii’s technology is used to monitor the time and attendance of contractors, but not power company employees, entering and leaving the power plant, according to the report.

“These entities have been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups in the XUAR,” reads the statement issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce.    [FULL  STORY]

500 kg of ephedrine smuggled from China discovered inside bed frames in Kinmen County

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/15
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Fuchien Kinmen District Prosecutors Office announced Tuesday (Oct.

15) at a press conference that it has solved the largest drug trafficking case in the history of Kinmen County, finding 500 kg of ephedrine with a market value of NT$500 million (US$16.3 million).

Deputy Minister of Justice Chang Tou-hui (張斗輝) and Wang Tien-sheng (王添盛), chief prosecutor of the Taiwan High Prosecutor's Office, are among the officials that attended the press conference. The sea patrol officers who made the bust were also recognized for their sharp perception, reported UDN.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/15
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan, Wu Je-hou and Joseph Yeh

Jakarta, Oct. 15 (CNA) At least six Taiwanese citizens are believed to be involved in a human trafficking case that sent 40 Indonesians to work illegally in Taiwan under the pretense of studying dating back to 2017, Indonesian police told CNA Monday.

Indonesian National Police last Wednesday announced action on the trafficking case involving 40 Indonesians who were reportedly tricked as part of a scheme, in which scholarships and job opportunities were offered for them to study at Chienkuo Technology University in Changhua County, according to a Jakarta Post report.

The "students" traveled to Taiwan on Oct. 27, 2017. The case came to light after two victims of the scheme filed reports with the Indonesian police after not receiving the pay they were promised for the past 18 months living in Taiwan, the police said.

During Wednesday's press event, the Indonesian police named two Indonesian suspects who helped to enroll the victims, while also charging them US$2,473 in administrative fees each.
[FULL  STORY]